From reading the rest of the posts, maybe I'll be the only one in southern Illinois watching it??

We have reservations at the campground at DuQuoin State Fairgrounds in DuQuoin, Illinois. We'll have 2 minutes 0 seconds of totality but could drive another 20 miles south (along with a kazillion others) and get all of an additional 37 seconds.

We'll be staying indoors trying to stay out of the way of the million or so viewers who are predicted to descend on our area of Oregon. Shopping ahead so we can stay off the roads. We have proper glasses if we want to sneak a peak.

I went to Super Bowl 27, I could have had a much better view of it watching TV.

BTW. Do you think my old arc welding helmet with a #10 lens would work ?

It's been a lot of years ago, but I watched a partial eclipse back in the 80's with a welding helmet and if I'm remembering correctly (maybe....maybe not), I had a #9 lens in it. If you are serious about doing that, just make sure that there are no scratches or any type of flaws that might allow the sunlight to go unfiltered.

A friend of ours is in the totality zone near Columbia, SC and invited us to join him. He called me though, to ask if I thought he should winterize his RV in case the temps dropped below freezing when the sun's heat was blocked. I asked him what happens when it's blocked every night, and he just said, "Oh... I didn't think of that!".

My wife and I discussed it long ago, and decided the 65-70% or so of it we'll see in the Adirondacks was enough for us instead of dealing with the traffic and crowds.

Oh great. I just got an email from Amazon telling me not to use the solar eclipse glasses I bought from them several weeks ago. They state they do not meet the NASA ISO specs. Of course, there isn't a pair to be found at a store now and it's too late to order some more.

Margi I am sorry I doubted you. I thought you were making a desperate attempt to keep the Californians away since I know how much Oregon hates California. I should have known you were honest. I found this clip in the news.

Tom, that's happening anywhere near the full eclipse line -- Colorado is banning wide/oversized loads until two or three days after the eclipse, for fear of traffic problems. Wyoming is doing the same from Aug 20-22. The news is full of preps for the expected extra heavy traffic, including the highway patrol changing the distribution of their troopers to handle the expected traffic jams. It's being compared to a holiday weekend, only worse, even here in Colorado (Denver is in the 92% zone). And not just interstates -- U.S. and state highways are subject to the same problem. The news last night reported that one hotel in Casper (center of totality area) is getting $2500 for the night before the eclipse.

We are happily set up in a Forest Service campground in Idah, right in the totality area. However there are so many people expected the local farmers are advertising $200 dry camping spots. Everyone who doesn't want someone setting up in their fields have installed new barriers and brand new No Trespassing signs. We drove to town today to pick up some last minute items, and there was a steady stream of RV and tent campers headed into the mountains. We plan on staying put until Tuesday.

The wife and I were planning on driving from Mama Gertie's in Swannanoa, NC to Creekside RV Park in Pigeon Forge on Monday. Because of the news indicating there will probably be massive traffic jams, even on the interstates on Monday, we have decided to leave tomorrow instead and hope that even leaving a day earlier, it won't be too long of a trip.

There are four storms lined up in the Atlantic heading straight for North America. I really doubt we will have clear skies on the east coast. We have had cloudy skies for the last week here in central Florida. So I agree with the above poster, this is like the Super Bowl so we are better off watching it at home. Especially considering the massive traffic jams being reported. It is 85% here and that is good enough if the skies clear.

the traffic jam near Prineville on US-26 was missleading. There is a huge eclipse festival in the mountains SE of Prineville which started Thursday. Probably 5000-10,000 people in attendance. That is what caused the traffic jam. At noon on Friday the traffic was flowing at about the speed limit.